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Widow of TSA agent speaks to reporters

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Hernandez was fatally wounded in the Los Angeles International Airport shooting

Hernandez would have celebrated his 40th birthday next week

A California husband and father became the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty in the agency's 12-year history, the lone fatality in a frightful shooting at Los Angeles International Airport.

Gerardo Hernandez would have celebrated his 40th birthday next week.

Instead, he is being mourned as the first slain-on-duty officer at the Transportation Security Administration, a sometimes loathed but always vital agency that protects the country's airports.

"I am truly devastated," his widow Ana Hernandez said of the man she described as a "wonderful husband, father, brother, son and friend." "We are all heartbroken and will miss him dearly."

Contradicting reports that Hernandez was a behavior detection officer, TSA Administrator John Pistole said he had other duties.

Photos: Gunfire at LAX 28 photos

Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Transportation Security Administration Officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was killed in a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, November 1. Paul Ciancia, 23, armed with what police say was an assault rifle and carrying materials expressing anti-government sentiment, opened fire at LAX Terminal 3, killing Hernandez before being chased down. Ciancia has been charged with the murder of a federal officer and commission of violence at an international airport.

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Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A passenger embraces a TSA screener at Los Angeles International Airport's Terminal 3 after it was reopened on Saturday, November 2 following a shooting. Four other people are recovering from injuries in the shooting.

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Injured traveler Bruce Reith, from Munich, Germany, is helped by two Los Angeles Airport Police officers as he makes his way on crutches to Terminal 3 for departure a day after injuring himself while escaping the shooting.

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Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Workers tear down a temporary partition after Terminal 3 was reopened on November 2, a day after a shooting at LAX.

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Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A Los Angeles Airport Police officer stands in front of Terminal 3 security screeners after law enforcement officials completed their investigation and prepare to reopen the terminal at LAX on November 2.

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – This photo, from Terminal 3, shows what appears to be a weapon on the ground. Police said a man "pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire" Friday, killing one person and injuring others before being shot and taken into custody.

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Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Law enforcement officers gather in Terminal 3 near the scene of the shooting.

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Passengers evacuate the airport after the incident, which airport officials said began about 9:30 a.m. The gunfire and the airport's announcement of the incident provoked chaos among travelers, passengers said.

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Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – People hide inside a bathroom stall at the airport after the gunshots were reported.

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Photos: Gunfire at LAX28 photos

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Thousands of travelers were delayed after the incident closed the airport for hours.

Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – First responders and emergency vehicles arrive at the airport.

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EXPAND GALLERY

TSA employees' union and federal sources said Hernandez was working as a travel document checker at the time of the shooting.

Union president J. David Cox Sr. said his group was "sickened" by the shooting and expressed thanks to "all our brave (transportation security officers) who put their lives on the line every day to keep the flying public safe."

The suspected gunman, 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia, walked up to checkpoint at Terminal 3 where Hernandez was working, pulled a ".223-caliber MP-15 assault rifle out of his bag and fired multiple rounds at point-blank range," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said Saturday.

Ciancia, 23, then went up an escalator near the checkpoint but then came back down "to return and shoot the wounded officer again," Birotte added.

Hernandez was shot in the chest and abdomen, and pronounced dead upon his arrival at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, CNN affiliate KABC reported. He had been with the agency since 2010, the affiliate said.

Two other TSA officers were also shot, one in the leg, authorities said.

"I'm shocked, the guy is a very nice guy," one of Hernandez's neighbors in the north Los Angeles community of Porter Ranch, Habib Bonakdar, told CNN affiliate KCAL-KCBS.

Hernandez was married with children, another neighbor, Ken Wong, told the affiliate.

"It's just tragic," Wong said. "What a terrible thing. Here's a man who was trying to serve his country, do his job well and support his family, and this is a senseless thing that happened. It shouldn't have happened."